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264. Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (#—)

Posted on December 11, 2021 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week joined by special guests Luke Dunne, Alex Towers, Alexandra Harvey and Andy Melhuish, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This time, Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi.

A long time ago in a galaxy far away, the First Order and the Resistance struggle for control of the cosmos. Things are looking particularly grim, as the heroes find themselves divided; Rey is on a mission to recruit the lost Jedi master Luke Skywalker, Poe finds himself trying to hold the remnants of the fleet together, and Finn embarks on a journey to a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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New Escapist Column! On “What If…?” and “Mary Sues”…

Posted on August 25, 2021 by Darren

I published a new column at The Escapist today. I’ve been covering What If…? for A Marvelous Escape, and it’s been a very fun experience. However, I have noticed that’s there’s a weirdly pervasive school of criticism that argues that the show has turned characters like Peggy Carter and T’Challa into “Mary Sues”, a criticism that has become increasingly common in discussions of modern franchise media.

Of course, it’s often very hard to come with a clear definition of what a “Mary Sue” is that doesn’t manage to encompass characters that the person using the description would never describe using such a term. It often seems like an “I know it when I see it” accusation, which can apply to Rey Skywalker but not Luke or T’Challa but not Steve Rogers. More to the point it demonstrates how blind some observers are to the appeal of these sorts of empowerment fantasies, and the double-standard that they appear to hold in an era where most franchise media is effectively fan fiction.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.